1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an intake air control device in which a valve shaft extends across an air intake path formed in an air intake path forming body in the left and right direction of the vehicle body frame. The valve shaft is rotatably supported by the air intake path forming body, which is connected to a cylinder head of an engine body mounted to the vehicle body frame of a saddle type vehicle. A butterfly-shaped throttle valve is fixed to the valve shaft so as to control the opening of the air intake path.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a known intake air control device, an actuator, including an electric motor, is connected to an end of a valve shaft. The valve shaft is rotatably supported by an air intake path forming body for controlling the amount of intake air of an internal combustion engine to be mounted to a vehicle. Such an intake air control device is disclosed, for example, in JP-A-4-203431.
According to the intake air control device disclosed in JP-A-4-203431, a throttle operating amount sensor is provided. The throttle operating amount sensor detects the operating amount of an accelerator pedal, which corresponds to the throttle operating amount input by a vehicle operator. The throttle operating amount sensor is arranged in the vicinity of the accelerator pedal. However, when this technology is applied to a saddle type vehicle, it is desirable that the throttle operating amount sensor is unitized before being assembled to the air intake path forming body in order to facilitate assembly and reductions in size. In this case, when the air intake path forming body is connected to the engine body with the valve shaft disposed so as to be rotatably supported by the air intake path forming body in a posture of extending in the left and right direction of the vehicle body frame, even though the air intake path forming body is arranged at a center of the vehicle body frame with respect to the left and right direction, it is desirable to substantially equalize the distances from the center of the vehicle body frame with respect to the left and right direction to both ends of the intake air control device to achieve size reductions.
In view of such circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide an intake air control device which can be reduced in size.